Vacation.com

Orange you glad we are going to Orlando!?

We had such a fun run in Las Vegas, didn’t we? What is not to love about Vegas? The lights, the entertainment, the food…the drinks! But we heard you. You wanted a new venue. The cosmic forces aligned and this year we are going to the sunniest place on Earth. June 27-July 1.

Quick, go write those dates down. I’ll wait.

Better yet, head over to the newly launched Conference website to get the lowdown on all of the juicy details. If only I could tell you everything that Lauraday and her busy little bees are cooking up for this year you would be amazed. Let’s just say it involves very, very big things.

Go. Register today!

Dear Vacation.com Family,

On behalf of our entire Celebrity team, I want to sincerely thank you for choosing us to receive your prestigious Power of the Partnership Award – Premium Cruise Line.

From our local Sales Managers, Regional Sales Managers, Directors and Field Vice President to our Customer Service, Reservation and Sales Support staffs to our National Account Vice President and team and fellow On-board associates…we all take great pride in this award. And…we’ll continue doing EVERYTHING within our power to earn your trust and appreciation every single day, again and again and again. After all, that’s what partnerships and friendships are all about.

You all work very hard every single day in support of Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Cruises and we cannot thank you enough. Your enthusiasm, professionalism and expertise are un-matched… YOU are, no doubt, the secret ingredient in our mutual recipe for success!

Again, thanks to each and every one of you. We look forward to seeing you at next year’s conference.

Sincerely,

Dondra Ritzenthaler
Senior Vice President, Sales

The winners from our 2009 POP Awards Ceremony

Supplier representatives, Vacation.com staff and member agents gathered again this year to celebrate all that is good and wonderful with our industry at Friday afternoon’s Power of the Partnership (POP) Awards ceremony.

Voted on by Vcom members, the POP Awards recognize those suppliers who consistently meet and exceed the needs of our member agency, and let them know how much their partnership is appreciated.

The big winners this year were:

 Congratulations to all our winners, and congratulations to Vacation.com for having such wonderful Preferred Supplier and such stellar member agencies to choose from!

EZguider Book Off!

There have been many famous boxing matches in Las Vegas (who could ever forget Holyfield-Tyson 2?), but none that compared to the battle slugged out yesterday morning in the EZguider Lab room.

You see, we determined that you can shop and book a cruise on EZguider faster than going through a supplier’s Web site or call center. Agents just couldn’t believe it—so we set up the Official Book-Off Content to settle the score.

In one corner, we had OVC’s Heather Wege using EZguider, Vacation.com’s leisure-selling super-solution. In the other corner, we had several experienced agent volunteers ready to use a supplier’s call center or Web site.

All contestants were given the same scenario that included two adults, ages 62 and 65, looking for a choice of 5-7 day Caribbean cruises from Ft. Lauderdale/Port Everglades in a balcony suite with a pre-determined budget, including tax and port charges. They simultaneously started the booking process. We then timed how fast Heather completed the booking on EZguider, and then waited, waited, and waited some more for the other agents to finish.

Through the trials, the winner and new champion was EZguider! EZguider easily knocked out the competition, average six minutes per booking, while Web site bookings averaged 19 minutes and call centers 22 minutes.

Just think how much time you’d save if you booked all your cruises (and tours, and air, and insurance, and pre and post cruise solutions) through EZguider!

Since we know how wired in our members are, we set up a new kind of Internet Café, an “Office Away From the Office” in Genoa for all attendees who can’t wait to befriend Vacation.com on Facebook or check their email.  In fact, I’m posting this blog entry from it right now, and I’ve got to say it’s quite cozy here.

This year, the Internet Café is more like an office away from the office. It’s in an actual meeting room instead of being out in the open by registration like in years past, with four computers and a printer.

We’ve asked attendees to not dawdle here at the café and only spend about 15 minutes per session, and so far everyone’s been good about that. Though the guy sitting next to me has been playing Mine-Sweeper for a while now, and I’m about to kick him off.

The lines to the Internet Café have been shorter than anticipated, mostly because so many agents are using their iPhones and Blackberries to surf the Web and Twitter about Conference. Are you following Vacation.com’s Twitter feed? You should be at www.twitter.com/vcom1. Make sure to hashtag your posts with #vcomconf!

I’d like to give a shout-out to the four sponsors responsible for this café: Viking River Cruises, Travel Impressions, Classic Vacations and Globus. Thanks guys!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vacationcom/90446443280

The Ribbon Cutting to start the show!

Packed.

That’s the only word I need to describe Thursday afternoon’s Preferred Supplier Trade Show.

Packed.

The Augustus Ballroom was packed with suppliers, their booths were packed with information, the aisles were packed with agents, the delegate bags were packed with logo-emblazoned tchotchkes, and the selling power of all was packed with general awesomeness.

The tally-tickers  couldn’t keep up with the flood gates when they opened of all of the agents entering the Trade Show, which lasted nearly four hours, ending with a slew of supplier-funded prize giveaways which will be announced Friday at the closing event.

Overall, the Trade Show was a smashing success, and also a great setup for the party tonight at the Miracle Mile Shops!